I have been surprised about how little comment has appeared concerning the assignment that will be given to the augmented forces in Iraq under the President's new "surge" policy. Here is a summary of the strategy:
Creating a Gated Community
1. Troops would seal off a discrete neighborhood using natural and artificial barriers such as rivers, highways, roadblocks and checkpoints.
2. Troops would sweep through the area, attempting to clear it of insurgents, militias and unauthorized weapons.
3. American forces would hold the area by creating small bases or combat outposts, ideally staffed by Iraqi as well as U.S. forces. The bases would allow units to remain in the area and provide round-the-clock protection. Units would patrol continuously to prevent outbreaks of violence.
4. Access to the area would be strictly controlled through checkpoints that would prevent outsiders, fighters and criminals from entering. Residents would be issued identification badges, and American and Iraqi forces could create a log of everyone who entered or left.
5. American and Iraqi forces would conduct a census to determine who lived in the area and the relationships between families and neighborhoods. Some officers believe such efforts are the foundation that allows units to develop intelligence about groups of insurgents or militia fighters.
6. Once violence began to subside, American forces could create public works projects and attempt to restart municipal services in order to provide jobs for residents.
7. Once the area was secured, U.S. forces could attempt to expand the security zone to encompass other areas.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-military11jan11,0,1685855.story?page=2&coll=la-home-headlinesThis is mind boggling madness.We won't be going after Moqtada al-Sadr and the Mehdi Army particularly -- instead, we will divvy up the city of Baghdad into small digestible bits. Instead of trying to disarm the entire city of 6 million souls at a whack, we will pacify the neighborhoods one by one.
Within the "gated community" everyone will be given an identity card that will be impossible to forge. This card will serve as the hall pass as Iraqis do things like go to work or go to the market for food. Without the hall pass, you can't go home. That ought to go over really well.
With modern computer technology, it should be a snap to keep track of every resident within the gated community, together with cross references to everybody's friends, relatives, occupation, hobbies and wine preference. The Iraqis, I'm sure, will be ecstatic to tell the friendly American jarheads and soldiers all about themselves as part of the get-to-know-you process that accompanies the search for weapons and other contraband within their houses. A great chat opportunity presents itself when the Leathernecks are rummaging through the lady of the house's underwear drawer to make sure there are no hand grenades or unregistered cell phones hidden there. The whole family will be in the bedroom with our troops, a perfect time to catalog the names of their friends, relatives and favorite shopping malls.
Talk about an intimate relationship! This plan is truly bold.
Once again, the Bush Administration has come up with a new wrinkle on an old classic -- this time George Orwell's
1984. Before now, most people had read that novel as a dystopian horror story of the merger of technology and tyranny. Viewed from a neoconservative perspective however, Orwell is actually a prophet of peace and prosperity for all, and his book a blueprint for making over the Middle East.
What a noble way to use our troops, by the way. Patrolling 24/7 to protect the Iraqi people from each other -- living right there in the midst of the people, showing the Iraqis pictures of their kids, getting to know the locals the way that Sheriff Taylor knew all the people of Mayberry. Sure a few of those Saddam Hussein bitter-enders might shoot a few of our dudes and chicks in the back during the wee hours of a morning, but that sort of thing won't embitter our troops. They know what a wonderful thing they are doing for the Iraqi people, and a few thousand more casualties is the just the price they have to pay to make sure that this idiotic war doesn't just make everything worse.
Of course, the language barrier will be a bit of a problem for this exercise in community policing. It's hard to get to know the folks you are protecting when you can't talk with each other. Maybe we can buy each resident of the Gated Communities a Berlitz On Tape English Course, so that they can more readily tell us all about themselves.
I can only guess that this scheme is so absurd that the entire body politic is engaging in collective cognitive dissonance -- and our brains do not believe what our eyes and ears are telling us about "the gated community strategy." Otherwise the breathtaking stupidity of this alleged strategy would be dominating the news.
At least it's better than what I feared was on tap -- a massed assault on the Mehdi Army that would destroy Baghdad to save it. Instead we get this bureaucratically designed fairy tale that wiser heads must prevent from taking place.
Bush has to go. It really is true that the Framers of the Constitution did not contemplate a President who was just too flaky to serve and there is no legal or political precedent for removing Bush for making stupid and insane policy.
Nevertheless, Bush has to go. Somehow, some way, this guy needs to vacate the White House.
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